The Friendship Matchmaker (review)

Lara Zany is the self-appointed Potts County Middle School's Friendship Matchmaker, and her mission is to link lonely souls up with compatible types so that the social world of middle school runs smoothly. Part Jane Austen's Emma and part Harriet the Spy, Lara keeps notes on the more troublesome cases, those she calls TLs, for Total Loners, so that she can try to help them overcome the obstacles that keep them from having friends. Basically, she advises fitting in, conforming to norms, and not drawing attention to yourself, dismissing admonitions to be true to yourself as adult nonsense. When a new girl, Emily, comes to school and begins to make friends without adhering to any of Lara's principles, Lara is stymied. She challenges Emily to a contest that will prove who is better when it comes to matching friends, and she finds out that maybe the rules aren't so hard and fast after all. Lara's narrative voice is fresh and funny in this Australian import, and the plot arc is both predictable enough and surprising enough to draw readers into her engaging predicament. Her lists (in handwritten interpolations that add accessibility to the pages) will ring true with young tweens, particularly those whose first concern is figuring out the mysteries of peer dynamics, and her entrepreneurial ambitions add a contemporary dynamic to the age-old impulse to meddle in other people's lives. The excerpts from her friendship manual will certainly encourage debate as to their validity, and they may even suggest some creative writing in response.